Did you ever notice that most gyms are filled with skinny people? So did Wendy McNary, an overweight woman in her early fifties who felt too out of place to join a fitness club. Until she discovered Body Exchange. You see, Body Exchange, in North Vancouver, Canada, admits only plus-size women.

For Wendy McNary, Body Exchange was exactly the kind of environment she was looking for. “It’s intimidating going into a gym setting,” she told The Province. “I honestly think some people in a gym setting are judgmental to people who are overweight or have a different body type.”

Now, she exercises six days a week, is training for her second 5K race and is down 50 pounds. But does it make sense to ban fit people from the gym? Louise Green, founder and CEO of Body Exchange, thinks it does. “Many of our clients have not had successful fitness pasts so I can see the anxiety before we get started and I can see the relief and happiness after we finish,” Green told The Province. “People are often too fearful to become active. There wasn’t a model that offered camaraderie.”

But we have to wonder: Do they throw you out once you slim down? How do they decide who is too skinny to join? And wouldn’t a gym that’s only for thin people offend everybody? Hmm…

I can understand the feeling of self consciousnesses on the part of someone with a weight problem but we have to stop the idea that if I have a problem with something then everyone else has to change to suit me.

If gyms ban skinny people then the skinny people might gain weight and while the fat people are working out they are loosing it. But then the fat people will be kicked out for becoming skinny and the recently skinny people will be allowed back in because they are now fat it would be an endless cycle. The fat people need to stop cing what others think of them and go to the gym for their own benefit. I also feel like if people see a fat person in a gym they arn't judging them, they are probably happy that they are doing somthing about it instead of just sitting around.

It's hypocritical to ban skinny people from a gym if you can't ban fat people from a gym. And some of us need to hit the weights to gain muscle. You never know what a person is battling in their daily life. Love yourself, and it won't matter who else is at the gym. There are plenty of gyms to choose from anyway, shop around and find the best fit for you.

Seems like to me that it would be a feather in the gym's cap to have all those skinny fit folks there. They can say see? Those folks were also overweight but they exercised to the point that they now look like they do.

Where would the fat people go once they lost the weight? What if you have lost a lot of weight and then you aren't let into gyms and you gain the weight again? It isn't skinny people's fault other people are fat, and they shouldn't be banned just because someone else cannot control their weight.

That would not be fair to skinny people they have a right to get fit just as much as fat people what if you were to ban fat people just because they might do damage to the equipment because their weight would be that much heavier.

Gyms are there for people to exercise and get in shape, so where's the logic in banning anyone from it?????? I think its absolutely stupid to say that fit people intimidate you when you go to a gym... unless the others at the gym make inappropriate comments and ridicule you there is nothing to get offended by.... if at all being amongst people who are fit can actually be a motivator for you to never loose sight of your own goal of getting in to shape be it to loose weight and tone down for those who are over-weight or to gain weight and get a toned body for those who are skinny!!!!

Everyone needs exercise not just people trying to lose weight and you can be "plus size" and look thin -I think if a gym was only admitting people of one body type say "skinny" plus size people would be upset

Who the flying flock asks these questions? In general, gyms should allow anybody, regardless of size, to work out. Working out is good for people of EVERY size and ability.
As a plus size woman myself, I can see where this woman is coming from, though.
Believe it or not, when a larger person tries to exercise, we tend to get harassed. Because some nasty individuals take it upon themselves to show their disgusting prejudices. In a regular gym, this happens more often than those of you who are not large might realize. And even if there isn't direct harassment, people will see it as their sovereign duty to come give the fatty advice, assuming that said fatty is an exercise newbie. More often than you might think, said fatty exercises faithfully.
This is a specialized setting for people of a certain body type, so they won't have to endure being mooed at or treated with disdain or treated like stupid children while they're trying to do their thing. Those with thin privilege have no idea what it's like to try and work out in a public place when you're a larger person.
I'm not reading the comments on this one. I don't have enough Sanity Watchers points. I can just see them now. "Fatties, bla bla bla, fatty, bla, derp!"
I wonder if people who think it's okay to rip on another person for their body type ever re-read what they've written and see just how IQ-impaired they sound.

I agree with the top comment; why do people assume gyms are about weight loss? Don't people know that you don't magically stay in shape anyway? How do you think they stay in shape? Magic pills? Do you want to boot them out so that they can put on a few pounds and come back?

And will athletes will be forced to work out outside? The overweight are not being discriminated against solely because they are a minority. Jeez...

no people dont know that and in case you havent looked around these days overweight are not a minority-I used to be heavy and lost weight and some of the heavier people I know think its some magic wand i waved in reality it was hard work